I always have a big "but"

So to update you from Saturday’s post…

The Groove Masters at the Sand Dollar were great. I was pleased they had a decent crowd, proving once again that people will turn out for music as early as 7:30. Some of us even prefer the earlier timeframe. Again, kudos to the new management at the Sand Dollar!

After enjoying the music a while, we headed over to the Riveria to see Robert Schimmel. The 10:30 show started at least 15 minutes late and the guy hosting the show was terrible. Not terrible as in his material fell flat; he didn’t have any material and that’s okay if all you’re expected to do is welcome people and introduce the opening act, which is what he did. But why not get someone with a degree of stage presence to fill that role, you know?

I wish I could tell you the name of the young, soft-spoken black guy (pipe down you politically correct nuts, I know it doesn’t matter that he’s black, but it is kind of a prominent and distinguishing feature) from L.A. who opened for Schimmel. I’ve searched the Internet and can’t find him. I feel bad because he was very good and deserves a mention. Dammit.

Schimmel did what I thought was a very short set— we were filing out of the showroom at 11:50. I laughed quite a few times—nothing like the OMG-I’ve-never-laughed-so-hard-in-my-life experience of a Louis CK show—but still, there were some funny moments. But (I always have a big but) within the first minute he announced he was going through (another) divorce and he talked about it with just a tad too much acrimony to be funny. (This is coming from someone who wrote a book entitled Bastard Husband: A Love Story. Go figure.)

In addition to the bitterness, at least half—if not three quarters—of his set consisted of puerile colonoscopy prep/prostate exam material. If you ask me, people, that’s low hanging fruit. I'd expect more from a veteran comic, but what do I know? The Hangover (worst comedy ever, talk about low hanging fruit) wins the Golden Globe and Woody Allen’s brilliant Whatever Works doesn’t even get a nomination? Jesus H.

At the end of the show, the host brought out a birthday cake to celebrate Schimmel’s 60th birthday and then Schimmel and his opening guy were very graciously meeting folks and distributing cake in the lobby. They seemed really nice and now I feel bad for being so critical. Of Schimmel, I mean. Not The Hangover. God, that sucked.

As for Sunday, I ended up watching the Golden Globes live because Vietnam Paul had some family issues to take care of and we didn’t get together. He goes back to Thailand on Thursday, so I may not see him until who knows when.

But speaking of being critical, I have a ton of things to say about those Golden Globes. Next time.